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Pastor Says He Felt God's Hand

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By DEREK MAUL, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 3, 2007

Updated: 11/01/2007 10:11 pm

EDITOR'S NOTE: This an occasional series spotlighting local clergy members. This week's column features the Rev. Reggie Rivers, pastor of Faith Family Outreach Church of Plant City, 1214 W. Reynolds St., Suite 2. The church has about 35 members. Services are at 10 a.m. Sundays. The church's telephone number is (813) 752-2639.

PLANT CITY - The Rev. Reggie Rivers laughs a lot. He is overflowing with life. His conversation is peppered with joy, and his spirit is irresistible.

Q. When did this church start?

A. October 2005. The vision came in 2003 when we were attending Faith Family Outreach Church in Clearwater, with pastors Steve and Sherry Nicholson. I'd finished two years at the Word of Power Bible School in Clearwater.

Q. Why one more church in Plant City?

A. Jesus asked Peter, 'Do you love me? ... then feed my people.' He said it three times. He told us to start a multicultural, word-based, faith ministry; word of faith teaching with a touch of Pentecost. I call it Pentecostal-lite. We welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit. We preach across ethnic and socioeconomic lines. God said do it in Plant City; I couldn't run away and hide, so here we are.

Q. Is this your first ministry?

A. Yes. I'm retired from the Federal Aviation Administration as an air traffic control supervisor. I currently do the same work as a contractor with Lockheed Martin. That's temporary until the church grows to the point it needs me full time.

Q. Who's your favorite preacher?

A. Probably T.D. Jakes. He has way of putting it down. The most inspirational is Joel Osteen. He delivers it like it's a light brunch.

My mentor is my pastor, Steve Nicholson; he's a pastor with a purple heart.

Q. Where were you born?

A. Bald Knob, Ark. My dad was a deacon in the Baptist church and worked with the railroad. We moved to Los Angeles when I was 8. It was a shock to us country boys. I graduated Centennial High in Compton 1967, then served 18 months in Vietnam.

Q. Did you always know God's call?

A. As a young man I got lost, involved in drugs and alcohol. But God kept his hand on me and plucked me out of that life.

Q. How did you reconnect with God?

A. Some people have one moment, but with me it was from a whisper to a scream. In 1994 I joined the Crenshaw Christian Center. They were teaching this 'word of faith' message. I learned to speak to my mountain, and my mountain was my life.

Q. What happened?

A. I learned to speak the word of faith. I was an alcoholic, and I was stopping at the liquor store when an audible voice said, 'You don't have to.' That night my life changed. He who the Son sets free is free indeed. Then God put this beautiful woman in my life, Dr. Pauline McNeil. I was attending classes - like a charm school for FAA supervisors - and she was my instructor. We were married in 1995.

Q. What do you mean by "the word of faith?"

A. Speak, believe and receive. When you speak you actually create.

Wisdom is knowledge rightly applied. Integrity is doing the right thing. Self-control is about making the choice to follow Jesus.

Q. How did you get to Florida?

A. I transferred from Los Angeles to Largo. Then God led us to Faith Family Outreach Church. It was their first Sunday. We knew right away this was where we were supposed to be.

Q. What excites you?

A. The heart of the people who come to worship; they're thirsty for him.

I believe strongly in love. Love is wishing someone life, the kind of life that God gave me, a relationship with my Lord.

Q. What do you want people to know?

A. That he loves you. The greatest revelation in my life was that God loves me personally. When we approach the Father we don't have to come in glory robes, we just have to let him love us. The only thing he asks is that we love him back.

Q. Do you have a Scripture to share?

A. Jeremiah 29:11. 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' If we could grab hold of that.

Q. Who's your Bible hero?

A. King David, when he was a young boy. His faith exploded inside him.

Q. What are you reading?

A. 'Two Kinds of Righteousness' by E.W. Keenen.

Q. What is God teaching you?

A. Patience? I'm getting it, I really am. Patience watching people grow; I should love on those folks while God deals with them.

Q. Whose brain would you like to pick over lunch?

A. I'd like to talk to Gandhi a little bit. He said, 'I heard about Christianity, I read about Christianity, and I would have become a Christian had I not met one first.' Then I'd like to spend some time with Martin Luther King.

Q. What do you do for fun?

A. I like to cook. I like to make barbecue. ... I like to play cards; I teach other people how to play dominoes - I'm that good. I like to go to movies.

Q. What's your favorite food?

A. Most of all I like fried catfish and cheese grits, collard greens.

Q. What makes you proud of your wife?

A. She tolerates me. She has patience. She is a woman of integrity. She holds on to what is good. Her gift in ministry is teaching, without a doubt.

Q. Do you have children?

A. Tiffany, Isaac and Christian Elisha.

Is there someone you would like profiled? Call Derek Maul at (813) 245-2304 or e-mail him at derekmaul@gmail.com.

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